The Fed said on Jan. 25 after a two-day meeting that it would keep its benchmark lending rate low "at least" until late 2014 from a prior target of mid-2013.
Bernanke, speaking at a news conference after the statements, said that the option of a third round of large-scale bond purchases, known as quantitative easing, is still "on the table."
"We still have a long way to go before the labor market can be said to be operating normally," Bernanke told the House Budget Committee in Washington yesterday.
Today's report may change the Fed's thinking, said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. "The report definitely scales down the odds for QE3, particularly the drop in the unemployment rate," Feroli said. "There is strength in the labor market."
With today's jobs report, the government issued its annual benchmark update, aligning the data with corporate tax records covering the period from April 2010 to March 2011. The Labor Department added 165,000 to the job count over the period.
The report also included methodology changes to the household survey, incorporating new population data from the decennial census, according to the Labor Department.
It also included changes to the figures used to adjust the data for seasonal swings affecting numbers back to January 2007.